I don’t write fantasy. Not really. I’ve written it from time to time (my short story collection, Irregular Creatures, has some). And Blackbirds apparently counts as “urban fantasy.”

Just the same, I am woefully underqualified to write this list. But by golly, that’s never stopped me before. So here I am, offering up my “list of 25” in the fantasy arena. Though I write with a certain authoritative sense of gavel-bangery, please understand that these are just my opinions–

— and shaky, unproven opinions, at that.

Accept. Discuss. Discard.

Do as thou wilt.

1. Nobody Knows What The Fuck Fantasy Is

Fantasy is a bullseye painted on a horse’s rump just before someone fired a magical spell up under the nag’s tail and set her to stampeding. We can all agree that something that has dragons in it and castles and a great deal of faux Medieval frippery is likely to be considered “fantasy,” but beyond that, it’s hard to say. It probably has magic or deals with the supernatural. It likely avoids science. It might be scary, but not so scary that it be labeled “horror” instead. It’s a fuzzy, muzzy, gauzy, hazy fog-clogged hollow, this genre. As it should be. Genre does best when its definition is decidedly low-fi rather than high-def.

2. Fantastical Fiefdoms

Fantasy is vivisected into various gobbets, limbs and organs — sword-and-sorcery does battle with epic or high fantasy, horror-tinged fantasy used to be “dark fantasy” but now it’s “urban fantasy” or maybe “paranormal fantasy” or maybe “fantasy with vampires and werewolves looking sexy while clad in genital-crushing leathers.” There’s fantasy of myth and fantasy that’s funny and fantasy that’s laced with a thread of science-fiction. You have magic realism and one day we’ll probably have real magicalism and I’m sure there’s a genre of fantasy where lots of fantasy creatures bang the whimsy right out of one another (hot centaur-on-goblin action, yow). Sub-genres have value as marketing tools and as a way to give you some direction and fencing as you write. Otherwise: ignore as you see fit. Or create your own!

3. Rooted In The Real

Reality is fantasy’s best friend. We, the audience, and you, the writer, all live in reality. The problems we understand are real problems. Genuine conflicts. True drama. The drama of families, of lost loves, of financial woes. Cruel neighbors and callow bullies and loved ones dead. This is the nature of write what you know, and the fantasy writer’s version of that is, write what’s real. Which sounds like very bad advice, because last time I checked, none of us were plagued by dragons or sentient fungal cities or old gods come back to haunt us. But that’s not the point — the point is, you use the fantasy to highlight the reality. The dragon is the callow bully. The lease on your fungal apartment is up and your financial woes puts you in tithe to the old gods who in turn make for very bad neighbors. You grab the core essence of a true problem and swaddle it in the mad glittery ribbons of fantasy — and therein you find glorious new permutations of conflict. Reality expressed in mind-boggling ways. Reach for fantasy. Find the reality.

Reality also offers up awesomeness in the form of data. You may think, “Well, I can’t research a fantasy world because it doesn’t exist, dummy” but again — root fantasy in the real. Look to actual events. Look to history. Look to culture and religion. Mine truth for fiction. Some cultures (Asian in particular) have a practice where friends and family and villagers help pay for each other’s funerals. Right there, you can take that, tweak it, use it. Drama lives there. What if the village won’t pay for someone’s funeral? Why? What’s the stigma? Why the exile? Adherence to dark magic? Broken oath? Cranky centaur bastard child?

5. Woebetide The Faux Medieval Frippery

Kings and knights and dragons and oaths and tithes and princesses and plumbers rescuing those princesses from giant rage-apes and — okay, wait, maybe not that last part. What I’m saying is, European Medievality (not a word) is the meat-and-potatoes of the fantasy genre. And I think we can do better than meat-and-potatoes. Look beyond that single slice of time and space for your inspiration. What about the 18th century bloody rivalry between chiefs and kings in Hawaii? Or the French Resistance in WWII? Or Masada? Or that time the Ewoks repelled the Empire and blew up the Death Star in their space gliders?

6. Go Weird Or Go Home

The power of fantasy is that you can do anything. Anything at all. You start with that core of reality and from there you’re allowed to grow anything from that fertile seed-bed. And yet, so much fantasy looks like so much other fantasy. Stop that. Embrace the wide open openness of the genre. The power of magic is that it’s motherfucking magic. You are beholden only to that which you yourself create. Go big. Dream weird. Be original. Why do what everyone else has already done?

7. Opinion: The Bravest Fantasy Right Now Is In The Young Adult Space

I’m just putting that out there. Discuss amongst yourselves.

8. People, Man, People

It’s easy to get lost in the shiny crazy bits — dragon undertakers and goblin butlers and the culinary traditions of the Autochthonic Worm Lords. It’s easy to be dizzily dazzled by the sheer overwhelming potential fantasy affords. But at the end of the day, fantasy has to be about characters above ideas, above culture, above all the fiddly fantasy bits. Great characters are our vehicle through the fantasy.

9. The Heart’s Bane

Fantasy fiction often seems to be about external conflict — sieges and escaped gods and blasphemous magic and, I dunno, unicorn orgies. But what we connect to in storytelling is the internal conflict. What lies in the heart of a character is what we understand — and, in fact, relate to — most. Yes, the battlefield is a muddy bloody hell-ground of decapitations and magic missiles, but those two forces are clashing based on the motives of characters — characters who feel betrayed or vengeful, who send nations to die to rescue one lost love, who risk it all because of some real or imagined slight decades before. The human heart — even when encased in an ogre king’s chest — drives fantasy fiction.

10. Dolls Nesting In Dolls

Put differently: find the little story in the big story because the little story needs to actually be the big story. Did you follow that? Let me explain: fantasy is often about epic motherfucking stuff. Quest for the magic boomerang! Dragon Parliament is going to war with the Unicorn Tribe of the Northern Blood Red Shadow Death Crescent-Steppe! Evil has awakened from its thousand year nap and now stumbles drunkenly toward our villages — oh by the gods he’s stubbed his toe and now Evil is very very angry. Those are big stories. And they don’t matter. Not without a compelling little story. The story of a boy in love. The story of a fractured family pulling itself together (or further apart). A coming-of-age tale! The tale of redemption and regret! The big stuff is just a trapping — epic shadows cast on the wall, thrown there by firelight.

11. Building A World Where Nobody Lives

Though the stage is essential, theater is not about the stage. All the pieces on it contribute to the action, the blocking. But theater is not about the stage. Theater is about the stories of people, and so too is fantasy. Fantasy is not about the worldbuilding, though it’s tempting to make it so. It’s a tantalizing proposition, to slide down that muddy chute (get your head out of the gutters, and also, out of other people’s mud-chutes, I mean, unless they invited you) and to keep on going — designing forest ecologies and ossuary cities (bone-o-polis!) and the mating dances of the randy tumescent Ettins. And weeks later you’ve forgotten the story. You’ve lost the characters (if you ever had them). Worldbuilding supports story, but is not itself the story. Worldbuilding is just the stage. It demands attention. But not all of it.

12. The Seduction Of Detail

Fantasy gives itself over to detail very easily. Exposition. Explanation. It feels like, “Well, the readers have never experienced this world before and so I must paint for them every inch.” You can spend a whole page on describing the pommel of a knight’s mighty sword or the density and temperature of pegasus cloaca, and I’ll admit that there exists an audience for that sort of thing — readers who want to be immersed so fully in a world’s minutiae that it bubbles up into their nose. For my money, if the fantasy is more about those details than it is about the story or the characters within it, I’m done. I’m Audi 5000, son.

13. Free Range Cage-Free Fantasy

Grow your world and its many details organically. Meaning, describe it when you need it. The test is easy: can the audience continue without this information? If the answer is no, describe as simply and clearly as you can manage. If the answer is yes, the move on to the stuff we care about.

14. Reality Versus Authenticity

Fantasy would seem the opposite of reality as in, “My reality does not feature merfolk flea markets or werewolves having sex-wars with vampires, and this book has those things aplenty.” And yet, each tale of fantasy must have its own reality and the way you accomplish this is by embracing authenticity. Authenticity makes everything feel real, even when it most certainly is not. Authenticity comes from consistency and confidence in your writing. (Logic and common sense don’t hurt, either.) Authenticity is a nice glass of warm milk that puts any reader’s disbelief down for a long, comfortable nap.

15. This Thing’s Got Rules, You See

Part of that consistency I’m talking about is maintaining a level of consistency in the rules of your fantasy worlds. Your sex-dragons and sentient blimp-creatures don’t need to act like my sex-dragons and sentient blimp-creatures, but they do need to act in a way we find consistent and believable. Discover the rules of your magic systems. Find out what the zombie magus can and cannot do. What happens if a werewolf tries to make a baby with a mummy? Hell, that’s a good question for all of us to answer whether we’re writing fantasy or not. I don’t want to be sandbagged by some squalling wolf-mummy. Fuck that, man.

16. The School Of Cool Has Been Shut Down For Serving Re-Heated Poop Mash To Students And Is Pending Investigation Thanks For Your Patience

Don’t put something in your story just because it’s cool. Won’t work. It’ll feel like a third nipple just sitting there, squirting scalding hell-milk in your eye. Elements of fantasy should be cool and work in the greater context of character, setting, theme, whatever. “DUDE SO AWESOME” is not a justification for inclusion.

17. Gone Off The Reservation

Yes, I’m exhorting you to go big, go weird, or go home. But you can go too weird. You can conjure an insurmountable distance between your world and the audience by being too abstract, for embracing weird just for the sake of it. Byzantine abstractions are fascinating, but they don’t do well in protracted storytelling unless you can somehow help the audience relate to it. We need to find our story in your story. If we can find no recognizable landmarks, if we can find no familiar paths — even murky ones — we won’t connect with your story. The weirder you go the harder you must strive to connect with us.

18. The Chosen One Is Done, Son, Unless He Got Buns, Hon

Personal opinion: the chosen one is over. Kaput. *poop noise* Jesus, King Arthur, Paul Atreides, Rand al’Thor, Spongebob Squarepants, whatever. Fuck the prophecy. It’s over! It’s a puerile convention in a genre that’s matured well beyond the need for such over-common trappings. Anytime I read, “He’s the one person who can save the kingdom / defeat the monstrous monster-thing / wield the magic sword known as Lion-Tickler,” I just roll my eyes and gently close the book. I no longer buy it. It’s lazy. Do better. (Oh, unless you’re subverting that meme. Then you get a fist bump. And a genital bump, if you’re into it. *eyebrow waggle* Oh, hey okay, since you’re getting out the Taser, maybe not.)

19. If Your Character’s Name Has More Than Six Apostrophes I Will Choke You

If your character’s name has a bunch of consonants jammed together, I will slap your face. If I need a ten-page pronunciation guide to sound out your hero’s name, I will kung-fu your soul. If you’re desperate to make your character names sound “exotic” and “weird” without any cultural underpinnings or consistency, I will clone you and make you fight yourself in a McDonald’s ball pit. If all your fantasy names sound the same (Galen Galorn Galendal Galendel Galendole Gaileen Crystal Gayle GALEYGALEGOOBYGALE) I will pull out your heart, stuff it with acorns, and leave it for the squirrels.

20. This Way To The Great Egress Ha Ha It’s Actually An Owlbear Lair You Fool

One of the things I really like about fantasy is that it pretends to be escapism. Even the word fantasy suggests an imagined escape. But fantasy can — and perhaps should — be used to explore some really deep, really profound stuff. By stripping away the faculties of real life you crack open bone and open up the marrow. No topic is too weighty for fantasy — life, love, death, marriage, social norms, violence, politics, government, commerce, sex — and yet fantasy is a honeypot, luring you in with promises of a trouble-free escape. That is, in the truest sense of the word, fantastic. (See what I did there?)

21. Maybe You Don’t Need To Write A Ten-Book Epic Cycle

You will not get your giant epic fantasy series (with accompanying 1000-page mythic dictionary) published if you’re a new writer. Some authors can get away with this. Most can’t. Before I tackle any big fantasy series, I wait until it’s all finished. Because suddenly the author starts taking five year breaks between books and then gets hit by a bus before Book Eight and suddenly I’m up poop river without hip-waders.”But now I’ll never find out what becomes of Lady Braidly Manabozho of the Shadowdark Hegemony! Will she be forced to marry Lord Krommng’kar? Will she accept her destiny as one of the Sandmurai and join the Magenta Falconer’s Guild?” Maybe calm down. Start smaller.

22. Read Broadly Lest Ye Regurgitate A Thin Slurry

23. Fuck Tolkien

Tolkien deserves kudos. High-five to him. And now we’re done. Stop emulating him. No more elves and orcs and dwarves. No more slavish D&D devotion. Fantasy isn’t beholden to this dude. Nobody’s forcing you to trample the same grass over and over again. He is not the only example (and fantasy needs few examples, anyway). As a sidenote, “fuck Tolkien” sounds like “fuck token,” which I think is how one properly accesses an orgy. “Ahm, yes, I’m here for the unicorn orgy.” “Do you have your fuck token?” “I seem to have… lost it.” “Then get lost, pervo.” “But I have this copy of the Silmarillion.” “I said get lost.”

24. Also: No More Hot-Pants Vampires

I like vampires. I do. And I like tight leather pants. Hell, you put a vampire into some tight leather pants and give her a katana, I’m good to go. But, urban fantasy — it’s time. It’s time to back away from the beleathered bloodsuckers and sexy vampire hunters and their hirsute lycanthrope lovers. All the romance and the vampire clans and swords and the two pistols and the sexy tattoos and — I mean, we’re done here, right? Is there nowhere else to go? Can’t you at least file off some serial numbers?

25. Write Down Your Dreams

We dream at night unfettered. Our minds unmoored from the known, lifting and drifting into the unknown. Anything is possible in our dreams. That’s why our dreams are so powerful — we feel something strong upon waking even as the dream breaks apart in our hands like a crust of beach sand. It’s why I encourage writers to write down their dreams if they found them so affecting, and it’s now why I think our dreams serve as an excellent model for fantasy fiction. The same feel I get when dreaming is the same feel I hope to reach when reading fantasy fiction — the sense of being out of my head, of entering territory that is unknown and so becomes both beautiful and frightening in equal measure. I want to believe that the author is not fixed by the rigors of reality or the reagents of the genre and that here, All Things Are Possible. The power of the fantasy is in its limitlessness to explore human imagination. Stop walking the same paths. Stop feeling trapped. Find the dream. Write what you want to write and let that free your fiction.

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As someone plotting out a rather involved fantasy novel right now, I thoroughly enjoyed this list! I also feel proud that I haven’t fallen into some of the pitfalls that you outline here!!!! Now to go write as a celebration

Ultimately I agree with most of the items on this list at least in part, however I disagree on some of them because I think that the point is too extreme. The main issues of this were with the “Chosen One” and the “Tolkien Go Home” parts. I think that to an extent your point is true but overall it is wrong because it lacks true context.

The idea of the chosen one is a bit cliche and can ruin a good story if done wrong, however you must ultimately realize that most stories that have a single defined “protagonist” also have that person play the role of the chosen one even if they don’t really express it. In some stories such as Harry Potter, The Matrix, etc the main character is defined as the only person who can bring about “victory” or the desirable ending of the story and the reader/viewer is aware of this and the characters sometimes even discuss it openly. That can work but its hard to pull off. In other stories such as the Sword of Truth series a more medium approach is taken as the protagonist is the chosen one but its not really said out loud like that or at least not for a really long time.

Now this brings me to the part that I think kills this idea completely and makes it worthless as a writing tip. With very very few exceptions (I’m looking at you A Song of Ice and Fire) stories are extremely predictable. This comes from the fact that all stories are build on the same basic plots (even though some do have unique twists). Ultimately any given character has only 4 possible endings for any given story arc. #1. They are ultimately the winner of their story and “good” triumphs. (The villains slain, evil is defeated, the murder is caught, they win the girl/guy, etc). #2. The protagonist makes the True Hero’s Choice and sacrifices themselves in order to win. (Victory is achieved but it gives the reader melancholy about the hero’s life). #3. The hero of the story is actually the villain, they either were always the villain or they became the villain along the way. (You either die the hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain ~Harvey Dent). #4. No significant change is achieved within the story and it ultimately more a learning experience about (something). 1984 would fall into this category.

Now knowing that basically every story ever written will fall into one of these four categories you can come to realize that the first 3 all have the fact in common that that hero is usually the chosen one. The fourth option won’t work for 99% of all authors. As a fantasy author you need to approach the chosen one idea with great care and finesse, but it can be used and it is best used in such a way where your characters aren’t running around saying, “Only you can save everything” even if that is the case.

Now the second part. With the Tolkien part I can see where you are coming from, however your method is not a good way to go about expressing the true issue. The real issue here comes from stories such as Eragon which take LOTR and then copy/paste a lot of the world building into their story. The author is in love with LOTR and wants to create stories in the universe but he can’t so instead he takes most of the important elements and copies them. THAT is bad. Fantasy isn’t actually any different than other stories in any significant way other than the fact that its actually easier to convey certain feelings, ideas, etc. When you said that there is no great definition of fantasy you were completely right for the wrong reason. The real reason fantasy is undefinable is because any plot in existence can work as a fantasy story as fantasy is really just a tool for the author. Ultimately any magical, fantastical, or alien element of a good fantasy story is actually just a way to personify something that is real. If you have some race that isn’t human in your story they don’t exist for no reason, they exist to help express differences in human nature. If the race doesn’t do this then it is violating the “Don’t do it to just be cool” reason.

If used properly having elves, dwarves, dragons, whatever in a book can add a great deal to the story and can actually be the main plot. I read a book (forget the name) that is entirely about elves and it very much follows a Tolkien D&D heritage but it was a worthwhile read because it ultimately used the elves as a tool to explore the corruption or society. For this reason alone I disagree with that statement.

Overall I liked your article and agree with 90% of the points you made. For anyone who wants to write fantasy I can give you only a few tips. Your story doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, in fact you will be LESS successful as an author if you write that way because it just doesn’t sell well. Most people want to read a book that is high octane, simple, and easy to read. James Patterson is a grand master of writing these kinds of books. I suggest coming up with simple stories and writing them. Save your sweeping fantasy story that will rival Tolkiens works for later. Your earlier works might not be great but the practice will make you a great author and if you collect your best ideas and save them eventually you will have a great story.

[…] book in the Steampunk . Thanks Literary Giant. Some very awesome no nonsense Fantasy advice from terribleminds. So here I sit typing a Fantasy novel of all things, 17 years of frothing at the mouth from pen and […]

My little addition to your Fuck Tolkien: it’s not just elves and orcs that need to go. I’m fed up with the walking. We must go from here to another place. There we will be told where to go next. And so on until the end. And then they start walking. Yes, I get it. Mordor is far away, and walking is probably the best way to get there (except those damn eagles), but it’s been done. Come up with something different.

I find myself strangely drawn to #25. Why has this never been done? Is this because it can’t or shouldn’t be done? Is it because too many people can’t remember what they dream? Or is it because as adults we lose whatever part of the brain (sense probably gets in the way) that allows us to actually imagine like we used to as children? Maybe someone will change this one day………

My last dream I remember involved scores of snowmen murdering people by thrusting them inside themselves whereupon they froze to death…after a time an alien ufo arrived, the crazed snowmen removed the corpses, raised them to what my mind understood as a tractor beam, and, as the bodies rose into the ufo, the snowmen started changing “presents! presents!” which followed with the most beautifully wrapped Christmas presents off ever seen getting lowered from the ufo to the killer snowmen….

Yes, the snowmen in my dream were murdering people and trading our corpses to aliens in exchange for Christmas presents…

You really want to read an epic battle to save mankind from that diarrheal brain leakage likely brought on by combining bad cheese with good wine too late in the evening?

Hmm… I agree with most of this. I’ve been wondering for some time some things to avoid while writing a modern dark somewhat supernatural book. The question I have been wondering for so long: Would people rather a “For-The-Greater-Good” or “Bleed-Your-Heart-Out” protagonist?

Somehow I woke up yesterday with some ideas for a fantasy novel. After science-fiction and young adult, I thought it would be nice to change and explore territories I usually hate (including granpa Tolkien). I’m glad once again google dragged me around terribleminds and this list. I couldn’t agree more on some points and it gave me inputs on what not to do. Thanks 🙂

Awesome list, very entertaining work. If anyone is in search of a place to publish/share their fantasy stories or poems, https://flowofprose.com is a great place to start. It’s a writing/publishing app with a really positive community that I just recently started using. Best of luck, Scribblers!

I love this list! haha!! These are some excellent points and commentaries! I am wanting to write a fantasy story myself, and have read lots of books (both fiction and non-fiction). These are quite helpful.

I absolutely love people with ridiculous, and therefore wonderful, imaginations, people who truly think outside the box and are fearless in presenting their ideas but who are also respectful of those who may stumble across their words. All this to say, your examples blend well with all your points, and this list is truly helpful to those trying to write the vague fantasy story. Thanks.

Have to disagree on #7. What I’ve seen in YA Fantasy is hopelessly inadequate and often belongs under Romance instead. Good, thoughtful Fantasy fiction that isn’t afraid of a little exposition and expecting readers to come from college reading level and above will always have a ready audience.

75% of fantasy novels would disappear if the protagonist wasn’t, in some degree, “the one.” The book doesn’t have to be about a savior, but with this rule stories like Ender’s Game wouldn’t exist.

Was Ender told “you are the chosen one!”?

No, but we as readers understand that he is the only one that could have claimed a victory. And that aspect of the character makes him interesting. It a classic literary character and I would argue it will never truly get old.

I had a fantasy world that I had created back when I was like 11. Recently, I’ve been looking around notes I had made back then and found that I really want to keep this world alive. I’m trying to avoid all of the tropes and trying to bring something fresh to the table.

Also, I agree that fantasy worlds should carry a dreamlike feel. The nostalgia I feel whenever I go into this world is something that I’ll definetely try to invoke on readers.

Ah, this list made me smile. Truly, you’re hilarious and you gave awesome advice. I have to comment on numbers 23 and 24 though 🙂 I agree that a lot of fantasy and supernatural literature seem to be beating the same, sad, rotting, dead horse. BUT – and this is a huge ‘but’, as indicated by my use of caps, that is only because a lot of this literature is of low quality.

There is nothing wrong with writing about elves, dwarves and sexy vampires – any more than there is something wrong with writing about FBI agents, or detectives, or cute, clutsy librarians. These genres have become so familiar to us that they’re almost as universally well known as our real world.

So many phenomenal stories are told set in the real world – the one we’re living in right now. There are no world-based mysteries in these stories – no new twist on reality to make our planet ‘special’ or ‘unique’. There are only the characters and the plot. And if these two things are done well, we are fully engaged. Switch to a classic Tolkien fantasy setting with a great plot and great characters and no one will care about the fact that it’s still dwarves and elves. They’ll be thinking – well shit, that’s a brilliant character.

The pretty but average girl luring in the hunky vamp isn’t a new concept at ALL. It’s wish fulfillment, designed to let girls escape into a world where someone just like them got the coolest, sexiest man. It’s Cinderella. It’s pretty much every high school romance. It’s done in a specific way that generally leaves the characters bereft of…well, character. You could be as inventive as you want and make the heroine an entirely new species with horns and a cool tail and lizard eyes – but if she’s a bland character, she’ll still be mediocre compared to any classically designed elf with a hint of personality.

Now, take human romance stories. There are great ones. And there are crappy ones. The great ones involve incredibly authentic characters, and romantic suspense and occasionally even external conflict. Both romantic leads are so well developed that they really deserve their own books, separate from their beloved.

Take a story with that much quality, and make one of the characters a sexy vampire and no one will give a flying fruitcake if it’s ‘recycled’. Everything is recycled in some way, no matter how hard we try. For something to be ‘fresh’ and ‘authentic’, it really only needs a complex and layered cast, and at least a functional plot – in my personal opinion.

However – that doesn’t mean I disagree with you entirely! I agree that fantasy and romance can always benefit from new and groundbreaking worlds and designs, the kind that inspire hundreds of books themselves. I simply don’t agree that people should ever feel uncomfortable or ashamed if they’re going back to the tried and tested stuff. After all, what makes Tolkien’s typical setting any more bland, boring or overused than the world we live in now? Absolutely nothing. It’s just a world. And better yet, it’s a world that we’re almost all completely familiar with and yet it’s still distant enough for it to feel adventurous and exciting.

It’s the stage. When you go see a play and the stage is set up in a completely new and wonderful way, it will mean very little if the play is boring. If the stage is set up in a way that’s similar and kind of cliche, that will quickly be the last of our concerns if the play proves to be great. Mix a great stage and a great play and I’ll agree that you have something truly breathtaking.

Still, that level of world-building ingenuity is hardly necessary for a great story 🙂

I think these are all great points, except for two, Numbers 19 and 7. I realize I’m in a tiny, tiny minority that doesn’t mind weird names (Zsasz and Xaro Xhan Xhaxos, for starters) because their books, and don’t need to be pronounced. But that’s me, and maybe just me.

But is there really any ‘brave’ YA fantasy right now? As in genre-defying? I haven’t noticed any-at least nothing on par with what Patrick Rothfuss or Brandon Sanderson or hell, even GRRM is doing. If there is, please! Tell me about it!